Toy windmill elevator



March .16 1926.

F. GOPF TOY WINDMILL ELEVATOR Filed July 2, l

i i lNVEN:

ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 16, 1926.

UNITED STATES FRANK GOPI, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TOY WINDM ILL ELEVATOR.

Application filed July, 2, 1925. Serial No. 40,991.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK Gorr, a citizen of Hungary, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New 6 York, have invented certain new and-useful Improvements in Toy Windmill Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

The main object of this invention is to provide a wind mill of miniature size having for its main object to present an interesting and instructive toy for children. A skeleton tower is presented in which a car is vertically movable continually by the cooperation of a wind propelled mechanism and a counter-weight, the counter-weight being adapted to retard the downward motion of the car and the wind propelled mechanismbeing adapted to lift the car to its uppermost position. H

' The above and other objects will become apparent in the description below, in which characters of reference refer to like-named parts in the drawing.

Referring briefly to the drawing, Figure 1 is a front elevational view of the toy.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view, a portion of the tower and mechanism housing being omitted for the sake of clarity to illustrate the car moving mechanism.

Referring in detail to the drawing, the numeral 10 indicates the legs on which a vertical tapering tower consisting of corner bars 11 and brace bars 12 for reenforcing the rigidity of the corner bars, is supported. This tower may be constructed to any height and its upper end has a skeleton housing which is provided with a gabled roof 13 and side walls 14-. The space contained within the volume of the housing is adapted to mechanism is mounted. A pair of guide rails 15 and 16 are vertically mounted 111 the tower and are adapted to serve as guide rails for a car 17; This car is p10V1dGd. W1th outwardly:extending plates 18 in which a 50 which one end of a flexible cable 21 is Se mi ed.-

fle b e cable ceases upw rd y .meshes with a smaller pinion 37. .pinion 37 1s rigidlyv mounted on a. spindle serve as a compartment in whichthe lifting around a grooved pulley 22 and from its other end has a counter-weight 23 which is g of lesser weight than the weight of the car 17. A shaft 24; is mounted between plates 25 in the housingand has one end projecting outside of the housing to which end a propeller 26 is fixed. This shaft is"provided with a key 27 and has a sleeve 28 slidable thereon, the sleeve having a key way 29 into which the key 27 of the shaft 24 fits or registers. One end of the sleeve has a pinion gear 30 integral therewith and its opposite end is provided with an annular di'sk 31, the purpose for which will be more fully hereinafter described. Below the shaft 2 1, an additional shaft 32 is mounted in suitable hearings in the housing and has a drum 33 secured thereon. Adjacent one end of said drum, a gear 34: is fixed to-said shaft 32 and meshes with the pinion gear 30 whichis part of the sleeve 28. To the drum 33 one end of the cable-35 is secured. This cable is trained about the drum for a number of turns and then suspends downwardly beingsecured to 1 the eyelet 20. The shaft 32 opposite to the end on which the gear 34: is secured, is provided with an additional gear 36 which The 38 on which a flat blade 39 extends radially. On one side of the shaft 32 and immediately below it, an ear 10 is fixed to a convenient position on the housing and has a stud t1 mounted thereon which serves as a pivot for a trip lever 42. Said trip lever extends vertically upward and at its upperend is provided with spaced-apart bifurcated arms 43 between which the disk 31 mounted on the sleeve 28 is received. The lower end of the trip lever is curved sidewise at the position indicated by the numeral 4 1 and this curved end of the trip lever has an eyelet d5 secured thereto to which one end of a wire 46- is secured. This wire 46 passes hori zontally across a portion of the tower and trains about the grooved pulley e7, from thence passing vertically downward to be secured at its lower end to a floating platform 48, which is guided in vertical movej ment by being slidably mounted in guide rods 49. 011 he dome ci -the a a 111 5 is mounted which cont-acts with the curved edge of the trip lever 42 and partially rotates said lever in order to move the pinion gear 30 out of engagement with the gear 34 when the car is rising. An. offset arm 51 projects downwardly and sidewise from the floor of the car 17 and is adapted to contact with the floating platform 48 and lower the latter when the car rides downwardly.

This toy has for its novel characteristics the continuous upward and downward vertical movement of an elevator car situated within the tower. The car 17 is adapted to ride vertically between the guide rails and 16 between which it is guided. The mecha nism for lifting the car 17 when it is at the lower end of the tower, is mounted in the housing at the upper end of the toy. This car lifting mechanism consists of a propeller shaft 24 on which a propeller 26 is mounted,

the propeller being driven by a current of air, rotates said shaft 23': and transmits rotation to a shaft 32, which lies below the shaft 24-. On shaft 32, a drum is mounted upon which a cable is trained, one end of the cable being attached to the eyelet of the car 17. lVhen the pinion is in mesh with the gear 34. of the opposing shafts 24 and 32, the car 17 is raised from its lowermost position in the tower to the uppermost position. In order to release a driving mechanism mounted on the shaft Bl from the car lifting mechanism mounted on the shaft 32, shifting of the gear 30 out of engagement with gear 3st is necessary. The sleeve 28 being provided with a key way 29 in its wall, is permitted to move longitudinally on the shaft 2-1- and constantly rotates therewith on account of the key 27 which is rigidly secured to the shaft 24 and rides in the key way 29. The sleeve 28 is shifted longitudinally on the shaft 24 by the trip lever 4-2 which is actuated by having its lower end ll come in contact with the lug on the car 17 as the latter comes to a position near the extreme upper end of its moven'iei'it. The lug 50 in contacting with the portion all of the lever 42 rotates the latter and the upper end of said trip lever being provided with bifurcated arms between which a disk 3' integral with the sleeves 28 is retained, moves said sleeve longitudimillv on the shaft Ll-l so that the pinion gear 30 is slid'out of engagement with the gear 3.4. This trip lcvcr actuates the sleeve 28 only as the car arrives at the umpcrn'iost position in the tower. The car descends slowly thru gravitation and its speed on falling isdiminished by providing the counter-weight 33 which functions as illustrated. ts the car. 17 de- This wire 46 being connected to the lower endee of the trip lever t-2,

1. A device of the class described com prising a tower, a vertically movable car in said tower, av propeller, a shaft supporting said propeller, a winding drum, a cable connecting said drum and car, the propeller shaft being adapted to rotate said drum to lift said car, a shaft supporting said drum, a sleeve on said shaft, the propeller shaft and drum shaft having inter-meshing gears thereon, the gear on the propeller shaft being integral with the sleeve slidably mounted on the propeller shaft, a. trip lever pivoted on said tower, the trip lever having bifurcated arms, a disk mounted between the bifurcated arms of the lever on the sleeve, and means on said car cooperating with the lever for rotating the latter to disengage the gear on the sleeve from the gear on the drum shaft when the car reaches its uppermost position.

2. A device of the class described comprising a tower, a vertically movable car in said tower, a propeller, a shaft supporting said propeller, a winding drum, a cable connecting said drum and car, the propeller shaft being adapted to rotate said drum to lift said car, a shaft supporting said drum, the propeller shaft and drum shaft having intermeshing gears thereon, a sleeve slidable on the propeller shaft, the gear on the propeller shaft being integral with the sleeve slidably mounted on the propeller shaft, a trip lever pivoted on said tower, the trip lever having )bifurcated arms a disk mounted between the bifurcated arms of the lever on the sleeve, a lug on said car, said trip lever hav ing a curved lower end, the lower end of said lever being adapted to be engaged by the lug on. the car to rotate said lever to to lease the sleeve gear from engagen'ient with the drum shaft gear, a governor rotatably connected to the drum shaft, and a counter weight lighter than the car for balancing the \veight of said car. a

3. device of the class described (ZUllllNflS- ing a skeleton tower, a vertically movable car mounted in said tower, a wind driven propeller, a horizontal"shaft supporting said propeller, the latter being fixed to said shaft, a winding drum rotatably mounted beneath the propeller shaft, gears corn'iectthe propeller shaft and drum, a shaft thus rotates Said supporting said drum, a sleeve slidable on the propeller shaft and having a longitudinal slot therein, a key fixed to the propeller shaft registering in the slot on the sleeve permitting movement of said sleeve longitudinally on the propeller shaft, a trip lever pivoted on said tower, the trip lever having bifurcated spaced-apart arms, a disk integral with said sleeve and adapted to enter between the bifurcated arms, and projecting means on said earengaging the lever for 10 rotating the latter to disengage the gear on the sleeve from the gear on the drum shaft When the ear reaches its uppermost position. In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

FRANK GOPF. 

